Courses taught (past and present):

Psychology 1011: Introduction to Psychology II
Psychology 2431: Child and Adolescent Development
Psychology 3501: Selected Topics - Language Disorders in Children
Psychology 3221: Psycholinguistics/Psychology of Language
Psychology 3801: Educational Psychology
Psychology 4401: Advanced Topics in Developmental Psychology (Research Methodology)

Research interests:

Language and literacy skills and the role of internal representations

Phonology refers to the study of the sound system of a language; phonological representations refer to our internal store of the sounds of our language. When we learn to read, we use these representations in sounding out words, letter by letter. 

Orthography refers to the symbols used to put a language into writing and to the rules that govern the formation of printed words. Inherent to this definition is implicit knowledge of rules that govern which characters are legal and how these characters can be combined. Orthography comes into play as we learn to recognize words by sight- that is, without having to sound them out letter by letter.

Semantics refers to our internal store of words, their meanings, and how they are associated with one another. As we learn and use vocabulary, we refine our knowledge of words, their sounds, and their meanings; indeed we can continue to learn new words throughout life. Word knowledge directly impacts our reading comprehension, but may also facilitate - or restrain - our ability to read and spell words.

Interestingly, the different roads to word reading intersect in developmental theory. In virtually all leading theories of how children learn how to read, the initial process is proposed to be one based on phonology and sounding out words. There is now ample evidence that phoneme awareness (i.e., an awareness of sounds within words) is related to decoding, and that training in phoneme awareness improves subsequent decoding.  Although the earliest phases of reading reflect a reliance on phonologically based processes, orthographic and semantic knowledge become increasingly important as reading skills develop.

I am interested in exploring how children develop early reading skills and also how readers progress from a reliance on phonological representations to storing and using orthographic knowledge. I am also interested in exploring just how semantics factors into word reading and spelling. Several lines of ongoing research in this respect are:

(1) the study of invented spelling, and its use as an instructional tool to facilitate the integration of representations and hence help children in learning to read

(2) the study of how children develop processing skills and learn to store orthographic represenations (orthographic learning) across the early elementary school years.

(3) the study of how specific components of oral vocabulary are related to reading and spelling proficiency

(4) the study of how different facets of memory are related to reading and spelling proficiency

(5) the study of how spelling and reading are related (and dissociated) in adult readers

Recent publications:

Ouellette, G., Sénéchal, M., & Haley, A. (in press). Guiding childrens invented spellings: A gateway into literacy learning. Journal of Experimental Education, accepted February 2012.

Sénéchal, M., Ouellette, G., Pagan, S., & Lever, R. (2012). The role of invented spelling on learning to read in low-phoneme-awareness kindergartners: A randomized-control-trial study. Reading and Writing, 4, 917-934.

Ouellette, G. & Haley, A. (2011). One complicated extended family: The influence of alphabetic knowledge and vocabulary on phonemic awareness. Journal of Research in Reading, currently in press; available online in "early view."

Ouellette, G. (2010). Orthographic Learning in learning to spell: The roles of semantics and type of practice. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 107, 50-58.

Ouellette, G., & Beers, A. (2010). A not-so-simple view of reading: How oral vocabulary and visual-word recognition complicate the story. Reading and Writing, 23, 189-208.

Ouellette, G., & Fraser, J. (2009). What exactly is a Yait anyway: The role of semantics in orthographic learning. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 239- 251.

Ouellette, G., & Sénéchal, M. (2008). Pathways to literacy: A study of invented spelling and its role in learning to read. Child Development, 79, 799-813.

Ouellette, G., & Sénéchal, M. (2008). A window into early literacy: Exploring the cognitive and linguistic underpinnings of invented spelling. Scientific Studies of Reading, 12, 195-219.

Sénéchal, M., Pagan, S., Lever, R., & Ouellette, G. (2008). Relations among the frequency of shared reading and 4-year-old children's vocabulary, morphological and syntax comprehension. Early Education and Development, 19(1), 27-44.

Delauriers, W. A. Ouelette, G., Barnes, M., & LeFevre, J. (2008). To see or not to see: The visual component of complex mental arithmetic. In B. C. Love, K. McRae, & V. M. Sloutsky (Eds.) Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conferen of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 241-246). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Ouellette, G. (2006). What's meaning got to do with it: The role of vocabulary in word reading and reading comprehension . The Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(3), 554-566.

Sénéchal, M., Ouellette, G., & Rodney, D. (2006). The misunderstood giant: On the predictive role of early vocabulary to future reading. In S.B. Neuman & D. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of Early Literacy Research Volume 2. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Recent papers presented at scholarly meetings or conferences:

Ouellette, G., & Haley, A. (2012). Semantics and early literacy: Oral Vocabulary Matters in the First Year of Reading Instruction Too. Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading (SSSR), Montreal, Quebec.

Ouellette, G., Costello, K., McCarron, E., & Trevors, G. (2012). Invented Spelling: A Unique Pathway to Literacy or Just the Same Road, Less Traveled. 24th Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science (APS), Chicago, Illinois.

Ouellette, G., McCarron, E., Nadeau, S., & Tims, T. (2011). Oral Vocabulary and Reading Skills: More Than Just Good Friends? Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. Tampa, Florida.

Ouellette, G. (2011). Oral Vocabulary and Word Reading Proficiency: A Complicated Relationship. Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Montreal, Quebec.

Ouellette, G. (2010). Oral Vocabulary and Reading Skills: A Serious Relationship or Just Good Friends? Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, Massachusetts.

Ouellette, G. (2010). Orthographic Learning and the Emergence of Accurate Spelling. Development 2010: A Canadian Conference on Developmental Psychology, Ottawa, Ontario.

Ouellette, G., & Sénéchal, M. (2009). Invented Spelling: More Than Just Child's Play? 16 th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Boston, Massachusetts.

Sénéchal, M., Ouellette, G., Pagan, S., & Lever, R. (2009). The Causal Role of Invented Spelling in Learning to Read. Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, Colorado.

Ouellette, G. (2008). A Not So Simple View of the Simple View of Reading: How Oral Vocabulary Complicates the Story. 15 th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Asheville, North Carolina.

Delauriers, W.A., Ouellette, G., Barnes, M., & LeFevre, J. (2008). To See or Not to See: The Visual Component of Complex Mental Arithmetic. Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Washington, D.C.

Dalton, A., Fraser, J., Ouellette, G., & Nicholson, K. (2008). I've Got One Hand In My Pocket and the Other is ?: The Mental Representation of Gesture. Annual Convention of the Canadian Psychological Association, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Beers, A., Fraser, J., & Ouellette, G. (2008). Reading Comprehension: The Not So Simple View. Annual Convention of the Canadian Psychological Association, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Ouellette, G. & Sénéchal, M. (2007). Invented Spelling: A Window Into Early Literacy Acquisition. 14th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Prague, Czech Republic.

Sénéchal, M., Ouellette, G., & Rahbari, N. (2006). Speech Perception Revisited: The Influence of Lexical Status on Categorical Perception in Preschoolers . Annual Conference of the Canadian Language & Literacy Research Network, Charlottetown, PEI.